Trump to make final US midterm pitch at troubled Reflecting Pool

Donald Trump chose Washington’s Reflecting Pool — an iconic landmark where botched repairs came to symbolise the 80-year-old’s chaotic presidency — for a final speech on Monday to rally Republicans against a predicted tide of Democratic victories in midterm elections . Polls show Democrats poised to seize the House of Representatives and within reach of the Senate in Tuesday’s vote — a shift that would impose tight political constraints on the president. A White House official told AFP the speech would highlight “this administration’s achievements to make the country safer and wealthier” while contrasting “the Republicans’ commonsense America First agenda” with “the Democrats’ radical, America Last agenda”. The site is one of the US capital’s historic stages. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the pool.

Trump said on Sunday he picked the site “just to show how beautiful it is”. But the roughly $15 million renovation left the pool’s lining peeling and its water green with algae. He pointed at vandalism , but federal prosecutors blamed faulty work . Under Trump, it has also become part of a sweeping drive to remake Washington, which has included tearing down part of the White House and threatening to demolish the city’s premier arts centre. Trump has predicted victory in the midterms for his Republicans, but he acknowledged the alternative in an interview released on Monday by the New York Post ’s Pod Force One podcast. “I think we’re going to do great — but if we didn’t win, I veto everything,” he said. “I’ll be vetoing, vetoing. And then they’ll come along and we’ll probably make some deals along the way. ” Winning just the House would give Democrats voting power over the federal budget…